Saturday, March 15, 2008
Erudite Longfellow Redneck
ER now has a middle name! Blame Geoffrey, who tagged me with the Middle Name Meme, and credit Angry Ballerina (and she is PISSED) for her lone vote, which christened me thus. :-)
Erudite Longfellow Redneck.
(What? I'm a wanna-be lit critter. What were YOU thinkin'? [snicker])
Here's the meme:
1. You have to post the rules before you give your answers.
2. You must list one fact about yourself beginning with each letter of your middle name. (If you don’t have a middle name, use your maiden name or your mother’s maiden name).
3. At the end of your blog post, you need to tag one person (or blogger of another species) for each letter of your middle name. (Be sure to leave them a comment telling them they’ve been tagged.)
L -- Loyal to my wife. Utterly. Otherwise, there's no way in hell this living arrangement -- me in Oklahoma, she in Colorado -- would work. I seriously cheated on a serious girlfriend one time (with a Deadhead, in the back of a VW microbus, in college, during a party, really), and I never forgot it. My then sweetie never found out, as far as I know. But the feeling it left me with haunts me still. (Note my use of "seriously" and "serious"; I did go through a period in the early '90s when the women and the smoke and the whiskey and the dancehalls and all were just a blur and we all seemed to just take turns with one another. Not recommended.)
O -- Ornery. Mama ER raised two ornery boys. I'm one of 'em. Synonyms include moody, balky, quick to anger, smart-alecky, smart-assery, ass-hattery, borderline sneaky, occasionally mean and potentially downright devious if the cause seems right.
N -- Noodling ... (see video) fascinates me. But like bull riding, I'm pretty sure that by the time I had adequately steeled myself with copious amounts of adult beverages, the law of diminishing returns would leave me incapable of the task. Which is to say; About 7 beers would make me willing, but about 7 1/2 would make me unable.
G -- God loves me. It's God's love for me, which envelopes me through Christ, that gives me total freedom to doubt, to question, to probe, to be happy, to be angry, to admit failure, to acknowledge success, to have hope, to admit when I have no hope, to take the Bible seriously but not much of it very literally, and to take other faith traditions seriously, and to be able to sleep at night with the kind of peace that passes understanding -- when I accept it -- and, increasingly, is allowing me to not give a rat's ass what anybody else -- especially other Christians -- thinks about any of it.
F -- Faith. And works. Not faith OR works. What the hell else could "Faith without works is dead" mean?
E -- Erudite. It means well-read, learned, studied, has knowledge, has read a shitload of books. I am, in fact, all of that. "Erudite" does not mean "brilliant," or even "smart," or even "knows what he's talking about" -- which is why it cracks me up when someone, once in awhile, accuses me of braggin' about my smarts. Nope. Never said I was smart. (Some definitions of "erudite" include "wisdom" as a synonym. Eh. Wisdom comes from experience, not books.)
L -- Lonesome a lot. Not just because Dr. ER is away. I can be lonely in a crowd. And I HATED Sundays before we got married, and sometimes afterward even, until I started going to church again a couple of years ago. Now Sundays are tolable. Still melancholy sometimes, but tolable.
L -- Liable to regret this period of my life one of these days. I know I regret some previous times, and some decisions I've made, when at the time everything seemed hunky-dory.
O -- Oklahoman. I am an Oklahoman. No matter where else I live, or for how long, I will be an Oklahoman. My emotional ties to place are just that, emotional -- to the point of irrational sometimes. But they're real.
W -- Wish I could afford to quit my job, go to work part-time and go to seminary, or work on a pee aytch dee, or both!
Tags anon.
--ER
Erudite Longfellow Redneck.
(What? I'm a wanna-be lit critter. What were YOU thinkin'? [snicker])
Here's the meme:
1. You have to post the rules before you give your answers.
2. You must list one fact about yourself beginning with each letter of your middle name. (If you don’t have a middle name, use your maiden name or your mother’s maiden name).
3. At the end of your blog post, you need to tag one person (or blogger of another species) for each letter of your middle name. (Be sure to leave them a comment telling them they’ve been tagged.)
L -- Loyal to my wife. Utterly. Otherwise, there's no way in hell this living arrangement -- me in Oklahoma, she in Colorado -- would work. I seriously cheated on a serious girlfriend one time (with a Deadhead, in the back of a VW microbus, in college, during a party, really), and I never forgot it. My then sweetie never found out, as far as I know. But the feeling it left me with haunts me still. (Note my use of "seriously" and "serious"; I did go through a period in the early '90s when the women and the smoke and the whiskey and the dancehalls and all were just a blur and we all seemed to just take turns with one another. Not recommended.)
O -- Ornery. Mama ER raised two ornery boys. I'm one of 'em. Synonyms include moody, balky, quick to anger, smart-alecky, smart-assery, ass-hattery, borderline sneaky, occasionally mean and potentially downright devious if the cause seems right.
N -- Noodling ... (see video) fascinates me. But like bull riding, I'm pretty sure that by the time I had adequately steeled myself with copious amounts of adult beverages, the law of diminishing returns would leave me incapable of the task. Which is to say; About 7 beers would make me willing, but about 7 1/2 would make me unable.
G -- God loves me. It's God's love for me, which envelopes me through Christ, that gives me total freedom to doubt, to question, to probe, to be happy, to be angry, to admit failure, to acknowledge success, to have hope, to admit when I have no hope, to take the Bible seriously but not much of it very literally, and to take other faith traditions seriously, and to be able to sleep at night with the kind of peace that passes understanding -- when I accept it -- and, increasingly, is allowing me to not give a rat's ass what anybody else -- especially other Christians -- thinks about any of it.
F -- Faith. And works. Not faith OR works. What the hell else could "Faith without works is dead" mean?
E -- Erudite. It means well-read, learned, studied, has knowledge, has read a shitload of books. I am, in fact, all of that. "Erudite" does not mean "brilliant," or even "smart," or even "knows what he's talking about" -- which is why it cracks me up when someone, once in awhile, accuses me of braggin' about my smarts. Nope. Never said I was smart. (Some definitions of "erudite" include "wisdom" as a synonym. Eh. Wisdom comes from experience, not books.)
L -- Lonesome a lot. Not just because Dr. ER is away. I can be lonely in a crowd. And I HATED Sundays before we got married, and sometimes afterward even, until I started going to church again a couple of years ago. Now Sundays are tolable. Still melancholy sometimes, but tolable.
L -- Liable to regret this period of my life one of these days. I know I regret some previous times, and some decisions I've made, when at the time everything seemed hunky-dory.
O -- Oklahoman. I am an Oklahoman. No matter where else I live, or for how long, I will be an Oklahoman. My emotional ties to place are just that, emotional -- to the point of irrational sometimes. But they're real.
W -- Wish I could afford to quit my job, go to work part-time and go to seminary, or work on a pee aytch dee, or both!
Tags anon.
--ER
Comments:
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No surprises here, except I had no idea Texas was such a hot-bed of free-love lovin' hippies. Man, I always thought it was us decadent northeasterners.
Well, the microbus episode was in Stillwater, Okla.
The early '90s was just run-of-the-mill, livin'-a-bad-country-song, whiskey-soaked, dancin'-on-the-tables-when-David-Allen-Coe-was-played, Texas dancehall, gropin'-in-the-parkin'-lot, hey-come-on-over-to-my-place redneck sordidness.
Only lived like 'at full-time for about two years. Then I just revisited the corner of Lonesome and Loser a time or three.
The early '90s was just run-of-the-mill, livin'-a-bad-country-song, whiskey-soaked, dancin'-on-the-tables-when-David-Allen-Coe-was-played, Texas dancehall, gropin'-in-the-parkin'-lot, hey-come-on-over-to-my-place redneck sordidness.
Only lived like 'at full-time for about two years. Then I just revisited the corner of Lonesome and Loser a time or three.
OK, so the C&W lifestyle is similar to all those free-lovin' lovin' hippies, except for steel guitars instead of blaring stratocasters?
The corner of Lonesome and Loser is, without doubt, the best turned phrase I have read. Ever.
The corner of Lonesome and Loser is, without doubt, the best turned phrase I have read. Ever.
But Little River Band said it first. I just made it an address. :-)
Have you heard about the lonesome loser
Beaten by the queen of hearts every time
Have you heard about the lonesome loser
He's a loser, but he still keeps on tryin' ...
Have you heard about the lonesome loser
Beaten by the queen of hearts every time
Have you heard about the lonesome loser
He's a loser, but he still keeps on tryin' ...
Oh man, I wonder if we ever ran into each other back then. I was at the Weed (and then various bars) a LOT in the early 90s.
Gasp! OMG. That was YOU? LOLOL. ;-)
Nah, my Weed-goin' days were '84 to '88. I lived in Tejas from '89 to '99. It was roughly '90 to '93 when I was giving chase to the skirt regularly. Then I caught one that cured me of the habit for awhile. I started to become somewhat, but not too, respectable about '95.
Nah, my Weed-goin' days were '84 to '88. I lived in Tejas from '89 to '99. It was roughly '90 to '93 when I was giving chase to the skirt regularly. Then I caught one that cured me of the habit for awhile. I started to become somewhat, but not too, respectable about '95.
(h)apa! LOLOL. Go lookit the Oh-ficial T-short fer this year's Testicle Festival: "Calf Fry Gone Wild." ...
Oh c'mon, who doesn't know the Weed!
Bwa-ha, that's hilarious! I should get one, just to weird out the seminarians ...
Bwa-ha, that's hilarious! I should get one, just to weird out the seminarians ...
OK, OK.
A T-short.
On the front it says: "Jesus is coming. Look busy."
On the back it says: "Calf Fry Gone Wild."
Dude. That'd be like an Okie cult almost. :-)
A T-short.
On the front it says: "Jesus is coming. Look busy."
On the back it says: "Calf Fry Gone Wild."
Dude. That'd be like an Okie cult almost. :-)
LOL, I meant the T-SHIRT, but the T-short has much better evangelical potential. Move over JUICY, we've got CALF FRY.
Hidy, AB.
It's only 'cause Bird (my redheaded redneck stepgal) is betrothed to YB (YankeeBeau, from Dracut, Mass.,) that I know what the heck that means.
:-)
It's only 'cause Bird (my redheaded redneck stepgal) is betrothed to YB (YankeeBeau, from Dracut, Mass.,) that I know what the heck that means.
:-)
Wicked was dropped from my vocabulary shortly after my arrival in Oklahoma. I mentioned that something was "wicked sad" which caused some to laugh and ask "did you just say wicked sad?" I have been unable to find a use for the word since haha. As you have pointed out on occassion I do still manage to pretend that r's do not exist (fohk-fork).
By the way you would not be happy with the lack of historical/geographical knowledge of students around here. During a 7th grade test I was asked if the Mississippi River runs through Texas, which side of the country the Pacific Ocean is on, and which state out of PA and VA was more northern (attempting to figure out which state fought for the Union). WOW! That's about all I can usually say.
By the way you would not be happy with the lack of historical/geographical knowledge of students around here. During a 7th grade test I was asked if the Mississippi River runs through Texas, which side of the country the Pacific Ocean is on, and which state out of PA and VA was more northern (attempting to figure out which state fought for the Union). WOW! That's about all I can usually say.
# posted by 
: 9:15 AM
: 9:15 AM
LOL. Well, I reckon I might drop "fixin' to" before long if I lived in a nothern clime.
(Don't tell anybody, but I did not know Georgia had a coastline until I was in college. As an intern. For a Georgia congressman. Yeesh.)
(Don't tell anybody, but I did not know Georgia had a coastline until I was in college. As an intern. For a Georgia congressman. Yeesh.)
Oh, and seventh-grade boys have just started to smell themselves (euphemistically). They'll be pretty much worthless for awhile.
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